Attn any Cingular insiders and/or Employees, ??? on coverage locator tools

Hey,

Would anyone be able to find out if Cingular does or has a Personal Coverage locator program (a la Tmo's internal tool which I have access too)??? I would really like to know, so if anyone can help, it would be muy appreciated. Thanks for your time...

 

I might check into this today at a Cingular store on my way home from work. That'd be cool too. You my friend are a fountain of knowledge...

 

I went to 2 different Cingular stores on my way home from work today (Saturday). The first store I went to was the one on Ray Rd, by my work. They had actually had their sign on the building changed to a Cingular sign finally.

Anyway, I went in to ask them if they had any sort of a personal coverage locator, where if I gave them a specific zipcode or address, they could plug it into their database to see what the coverage should be like. The guy who was assisting me was fumbling around the database, & the only thing he could pull up was what pretty much amounts to the same map as in the brochures, but more of a close-up shot of Phx Metro.

I gave him both my work & my residence zips. Of course, the area compromising the area of the zips I gave, were showing the deepest orange, which the rep said represents the area of strongest signal. I told the guy that I briefly tryed AT&T right before the acquisition was completed, & that I worked right up the street from this store.

I told him that when I had their service, I was using a refurbed V600. Him and another female store associate immediately chimed in to say that they believe that the V600 was probably the cause of my lack of reception. They both were ripping that phone as being notoriously bad @ holding reception. I had been under the impression that the V600 was known as a good performer as far as holding a signal. I don't know what to believe @ this point.

The female associate then said that this year, Cingular was planning to add like 185 towers in AZ alone in 2005. This sounded like a trained response moreso than anything else. She said she had no idea where any of these towers would go, but said that was the number they were told. The original guy helping me out said that both my work zip, & my home zip were both known pockets where service improvements were to be addressed soon. This sounded more like a response to appease me, more than anything else.

After this line of questioning, I decided to get their take on whether or not Cingular would be offering the Treo 650, as I am dying for that phone to be carried on Verizon. From reading these forums, I knew that they are supposedly on the verge of release, and/or pre-order from some websites. These 2 associates were going to have me believe that Cingular is no where close to ever releasing the 650 anytime soon. How reassuring that they were misinformed!!! NOT!!! That was all for this store...

I then made my journey to the Cingular Store# 2 on Chandler Blvd & the 101. Still with the AT&T Wireless sign still intact. (How long does it take to change a darn sign to Cingular???

Anyways, I went in to this store on the same fact-finding mission. In regards to the coverage strength issues, I asked once again if they have a personal coverage checker type database. The guy immediately knew where to go to locate that. He pulled it right up at his workstation.

I gave him both my whole work address & residence address, & he pulled them up respectively. This time, the resulting coverage maps were somewhat the same fashion as the internal TMo personal coverage locator- very specific. It turns out that actually, both of these addresses were in the same scenario as far as signal strength. The guy was like these are areas of fair coverage, & I could expect to receive 1-2 bars of coverage. The same as what I could expect when the system belonged to AT&T Wireless. This guy was outright and honest, but this was not reassuring in my mind. He said that as of this year (month), Cingular has already put up 10 towers in AZ, but could not say where. This guy was also saying that alot of the issues I had previously experienced was probably a fault of the refurb V600. What do you guys think???

When I asked him about the likelyhood of Cingular carrying the Treo 650, he said they are pretty certain they will, but he couldn't tie down a date. Fair enough.

I guess in the end, I am still just as hazy about whether Cingular could work for me at this time. The saga continues I guess... Any further input is welcome. Thanks for listening...

 

We should try to arrange this- a get together to determine a realistic view of covergae in the areas I frequent. I'll have to see when that can be arranged. I'll get back to you on that one... Thanks...

 

Not so much... it's just that I am up for renewal in November, & I like getting a bit of a jump as far as knowing what's out there. Coverage is first & foremost to me. VZW has been better than I could hope for. I have 0 qualms with them.

My gripe is that with the Acquisition, I figure that if I am paying good money for a service, It had gosh darn well be dependable in the places I frequent. This is Phoenix Metro that I live in- the 5th or 6th largest city in the US. I work in the area of Phoenix right as you get into town from Tucson- (I believe the 70th largest MSA by Census standards, IIRC). In the areas I need coverage to be, it is substandard, IMO. I live a mere 10 miles away from where I work, in Chandler, a sity eclipsing 200,000 population. I'm not in the boonies or anything.

It just seems that Cingular should give some precedence here in network improvements, since they tout the "Allover" network heavily. That's just my rant. I know others are experiencing success w/ Cingular, so I am not knocking the company as a whole, or these people. Cingular needs to raise my bar of expectations if I am to consider themselves worthy of my business.

I am pretty sure I will be w/ VZW for a while anyways...

 

I don't know what to think, but I may reevaluate Cingular in due time, because IMO, things can only get better in time, right???

 

I'll let you know. Thanks again for the offer. I feel better getting that rant off my chest... How liberating!!!

 

hopefully... we'll see...

 

would you be able to try to track down the address sometime??? I would be much appreciative. Thatd be awesome. I can hook you up w/ a gmail invite for your troubles if that helps. Thanks buddy!!!